


Two is better than One

by TaleWeaver



Series: Ad astra per aspera - Phase 1 [4]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Skyeward Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-01
Updated: 2015-02-01
Packaged: 2018-03-10 00:35:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3270146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaleWeaver/pseuds/TaleWeaver
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There’s nothing like having the person you love most waiting when you walk in the door.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two is better than One

**Author's Note:**

> DAY FOUR – CHANGES
> 
> Also: COMPARE AND CONTRAST/PARALLELS  
>  _Don’t ask me where this idea came from. Seriously, I don’t know - it just sort of showed up in my brain the week before SwW started. I haven’t done a lot of research on the psychological condition presented here; apologies for any glaringly offensive errors._
> 
>  
> 
> _In case you haven’t been following the news for spoilers, ‘Dr Andrew Garner’ is a forthcoming guest/recurring character in season 2.5 who is a forensic psychologist (and Melinda May’s ex-husband)._

“Ah, home at last!” Skye groaned, as she dumped her bag next to the front door.

“Sounds like you had a long day.”

Skye looked up at her approaching roomate, and gave him a quick sweeping, searching glance, before she smiled cheerily. “Felt long, anyway. But now I get to work at home for the rest of the week. Without anyone looking over my shoulder I can set automated programs to get the bulk of it done. Three days at home, and I’ll need to spend maybe one day working. I love telecommuting!”

Grant chuckled, and handed her a tall glass, filled with crushed ice and liquid that swirled in red, yellow, and orange. Skye knocked back half the drink in one shot, finishing with a deep sigh.

“Oh yeah, that’s the stuff. This is why you’re my best friend.”

“What, just because I can out-mix a bartender?”

“Nah,” Skye told him teasingly. “That’s just one of many. Want to order in Chinese for dinner?”

“Already did. It’s in the oven keeping warm.” Grant blinked and yawned widely. “Sorry, Skye... I’ve been really sleepy for awhile. I was just waiting to say hello when you got home-”

Skye stepped forward and placed her hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay, Grant, go nap on the couch. I’ll watch over you while you’re out.”

Grant gave her an achingly sweet, sleepy smile, and Skye’s breath caught as he bent forward and kissed her on the forehead. For the few seconds the contact lasted, it was like every square millimetre of skin that met his lips tingled.

Sometimes it was really hard, being in love with Grant Ward. But there were compensations.

As Grant settled onto the couch, a European pillow underneath his head (all their cushions were actually square pillows for this reason), Skye headed towards her bedroom. She unlaced her ankle boots, gently kicking them into the corner, and shucked the barely-office-appropriate dress she wore, haphazardly tossing it into the laundry basket.

As she stood there in her underwear, she reached up to her scalp and started plucking out the hairpins... only to feel large, strong fingers brush against her own, weaving gently through her hair as they took out what she laughably called a hairstyle and finger-combed her long tresses. Another set of fingers brushed along her spine as the other hand undid her bra. Not many men could do that one-handed, but this man had had a lot of practise – at least, with her bras.

“Hey there, sweetheart,” came a deep, husky voice. A casual observer might have mistaken it for Grant with a cold. “I heard you had a long day.”

Skye tilted and turned her head to look at the man behind her, then smiled again. But this smile was sultry and inviting. “Hey, lover. I did indeed. I could use some relaxation therapy.”

Both hands slid her bra straps off her shoulders, letting the garment drop on the floor as he cupped both her breasts in his big hands, skillfully rubbing her rapidly hardening nipples while the rest of his hand massaged the globes.

Skye moaned and let herself go limp with abruptly surging desire, leaning back to rest against her long-time lovers’ firm chest.

“What kind of relaxation therapy are we talking here? Backrub, foot massage, tequila sunrise while we snark on a bad movie and laugh ourselves sick?” he asked laughingly.

“All of those sound nice,” Skye sighed. Then moaned as one of the hands slipped down the front of her panties. God, he’d barely touched her and she was already wet for him. The things this man made her feel. “But right now, I’d like the kind where we both get naked and fuck slow and deep.”

“That’s my favourite kind,” Ward chuckled.

* * *

All her weariness melted away, as Skye helped Ward undress – she never ceased to be glad that her best friend and lover liked tight T-shirts. As she unhooked his belt, eager to get her hands on the body beneath, she barely noticed the large hands sliding her panties off her hips and down her legs.

Skye lifted one foot off the floot and out of her discarded underwear, and curled her leg around Ward’s thigh (sometimes the height difference was a real pain). Ward took the hint, and gripped her hips, lifting her up so that her legs curled around his waist properly. Stepping to the bed, Ward knelt on the mattress and leaned forward so Skye could rest flat on the bed.

_Skye was fifteen when she met Grant Ward in group therapy. She was dealing with abandonment issues, which manifested by hacking into any government agency or powerful company she could, and spilling every dirty secret she could find over the internet. Grant was dealing with the trauma of a childhood where his mother physically abused him, his older brother psychologically abused him (with the occasional foray in physical as well) and his father watched the whole thing and did nothing. This state of affairs had lasted until his younger brother called the police; because once Thomas understood just how twisted their family situation was, he also understood that if he didn’t do something soon one of the Ward kids was going end up dead – and he and Grant were the odds-on favorites._

_Skye wasn’t sure why Grant managed to get through her barbed-wire maze defenses, but he slipped through them like he had a map. Before she really knew it, Skye was best friends and half in love with this beautiful, supposedly priviledged boy who was far more broken than she was. Who, as it turned out, was even more broken than **he** knew._

Ward bent his head and pressed his lips to hers. It was a soft, chaste kiss, but it made her whole body tingle, and she sighed with loss when he pulled away. Skye pulled him down for another long, probing kiss, and Ward groaned and parted his lips, his own tongue fighting with hers for dominance until he broke off and kissed a trail down her neck and over her chest.

His hands gently squeezed her breasts as his mouth sucked and licked her nipples driving her mad with desire. Her breath came out in a rush then held still as he moved from one hardened tip to the other. Her hands clutched into his hair and shoulder when he sucked in her breast. She threw back her head as his tongue circled her nipple, then she gasped as his teeth lightly grazed it. His mouth moved back up to her lips, as she wrapped her legs around his hips.

_It was Skye who Grant finally told about the problem he hadn’t been able to bring himself to share in group. At least twice a week, Grant fell asleep... and woke up somewhere else, sometimes even wearing different clothes, hours or even days later._

_Naturally, Skye pledged to stay by his side to keep him safe in his ‘blank spaces’... so Skye became the first person who actually met Ward._

Skye could feel a tingling warmth rushed through her body, and she moaned Ward’s name as he eased his hips away from hers. Her right hand searched across the bed to find his, planted next to her hip on the sheets, and she entwined her fingers with his. He slipped a finger inside her with the other hand, and her body writhed with her need, her movements gentle as his. Then he slipped two fingers inside of her, and her hand tightened it’s grasp on his. She rocked her hips against his hand, pushing against it, trying to force his fingers in further, and she whined in protest when he took both his hands away.

Hooking his hands underneath her bent knees, Ward gently unwrapped her legs. He pushed one to the side, spreading her wide open for him, and lifted the other over his shoulder. Not to be outdone, Skye reached down between their bodies and curled her fingers around his erection, guiding him to where he belonged. Ward slid into her with a slow, insistent thrust, and Skye sighed in contentment as his hips settled flush against hers. Ward pulled back slightly, then as Skye tugged on his hair, urging him on, he started to pump his hips in earnest, his pace slow but forceful, every stroke reaching deep inside her.

_When Grant was a few weeks short of his twelfth birthday, his older brother pushed him down a well and walked away. It was Ward who climbed back out, most of his fingernails ripped out and splintered, and a lip bitten through from sheer effort of holding back screams of rage. From that day forward, it was Ward who dealt with their mother’s violence, and who stood proud against Christian’s torments. While Grant could cope with his father’s dismissal of the abuse his mother heaped on both her first two sons, it was Ward who let the man’s verbal abuse wash over him and ignored it._

_Originally, Ward had only surfaced when violence was in the offing; a manifestation of what melodramatic writers called ‘the beast within’. If Grant was the pain, Ward was the rage. If Grant longed for healing, Ward demanded vengeance. Ward was a boy, then man, of fierce and primal motives, who trusted the instincts Grant reasoned against. Ward surfaced to fight... until he got to know Skye, as Grant had. Then he developed another appetite, besides that for destruction._

_He actually came to the surface more once Skye came into Grant’s life, but much of the time he managed to do it so subtly that Grant wasn’t aware of it. Grant had such a disorted view of love that he didn’t realise he was in love with Skye... but Ward saw things through a more tightly focused lens, and he was completely aware that Skye was the one for him – for both of him._

When he took her over the first peak, he groaned with her, and Skye knew he was already struggling to hold back for her sake. Ward braced himself with his hands on either side of her torso, using the leverage to drive himself into her harder. Skye bucked her hips to meet him, and her eyes glazed over in pleasure. Skye moaned loudly when he hit a particularly good spot inside her, and tangled her fingers in his hair before she slid her hands over his shoulders.

He was trembling with the effort it took to hold back, not to pound into her. In an effort to soothe him a little, Skye ran her nails down Ward’s back. Just hard enough for him to feel it, but making sure she didn’t mark his skin. Skye could never leave marks of her love on Ward; Grant would be so confused, even afraid. Skye couldn’t bear the thought of seeing Grant hurt like that, and being the cause was worse.

_When Grant was eighteen and Skye was sixteen, one of the local gang-bangers attempted to mug them, and threatened to rape Skye. Ward surfaced in a towering rage and nearly ripped the petty thug apart with his bare hands. Skye knew she should be shocked and dismayed by his behaviour, but instead she found herself incredibly excited by the animal beauty Ward displayed... and thrilled by the idea of that danger surfacing for **her**. To protect and safeguard **her**._

_Ward had taken one look at her, and grinned in ferocious satisfaction. He’d kissed her in that alley, a devouring, drowning kiss that had made her knees weak and her panties wet. Skye had all but dragged him into the cheap hotel down the block, but once they’d shut the door to their room, Ward had taken control. He’d all but ripped the clothes from her body and thrown her on the bed. Skye’s first sexual experience had been violent, bordering on frenzied, as Ward took her again and again. Claiming her like a feral beast driven to mate. Skye hadn’t been frightened, though – she knew that both Grant and Ward would die before hurting her. Instead she’d relished it, gloating over the bruises and bite marks Ward left in the wake of his passion._

_For the first time in her life, Skye was utterly certain that she belonged to someone. That someone belonged to her. She was mated for life, to Grant **and** Ward... even if only one of them knew it._

Ward’s pace slowed a little as he calmed down, and Skye let her head tilt back and her eyes close once more, relishing the dreamy bliss seeping through her. All Skye had to do was enjoy Ward gently caressing her breasts, and the pressure of his deep thrusts filling her. Her arousal and pleasure felt differently than usual; a steady, seeping glow that didn’t climb or ignite, but instead deepened, thrumming through her body like standing next to the bass speaker at a rock concert. She was usually much more energetic, even aggressive, during sex, but every so often it felt good to just let Ward take care of her in bed, the same way Grant did outside of it. She always loved being reminded of how similar the two were, under the surface.

She lazily tilted her hips, then gently tightened herself around him, and Ward let out a soft, reverberating growl. The sound sent a thrill shivering up her spine, and Skye repeated her intimate embrace in a slow, languorous tempo, until she felt Ward’s fingers sliding between their bodies to stroke her in time, until one last, throbbing pulse rippled through her, making her arch her back and cry out, just before Ward came inside her.

* * *

Skye had fallen into a light doze, warm and sleepy from Ward’s expert ‘relaxation techniques’, but she didn’t stir when he slid out of the bed. She was used to it. When the shower stopped, she pushed herself up with a groan, so she was sitting upright when Ward strolled naked out of the connecting bathroom they all shared. Eyeing him appreciatively, she asked, “Do we have time for another round?”

Ward shook his head. “Me and Grant have both been running short on sleep. Besides, I’ve been coming out more often than usual this past week, because some lawyer from our fucking parents keeps trying to contact us. You’ll stay with him when it happens?”

Skye nodded. “I’ll be home the rest of the week, so I’ll stick as close as I can to him until Monday, at least. I’ve got lots of sick time still if either of you need me – Dr Garner will write me a certificate, right?” she smiled.

Ward chuckled back appreciatively, and bent to give her a lingering kiss. “Grant’s stirring – if I don’t start trying to sleep now he’ll surface before we get any rest. Catch you later, beloved.”

“See you then,” Skye smiled.

_Grant had said on more than one occasion that he thought Skye was his personal miracle. Skye found that incredibly flattering, but she thought that Grant becoming a patient of Dr Andrew Garner came a close second. The Doctor had started treating Grant for dissociative amnesia – his lost time – and had quickly realised he was dealing with something more. He’d had the wit to ask Skye for help, and she’d persuaded Ward to talk to the psychologist. Dr Garner was hopeful of one day being able to integrate Grant and Ward into a single, natural personality again... because Ward wanted that, too. Ward saw himself as a shard that needed to be fixed back into the looking-glass._ _But Dr Garner and Ward were both adamant - Skye couldn’t tell Grant about Ward. Skye couldn’t tell her best friend that the reason she never teased him about his love life was that he had been in an exclusive relationship for almost seven years – with **her**. That the reason his body never urged him to find a lover was because it’s sexual drives were being frequently sated, because his body spent more time in her bed than his._

After Ward dressed and went back to the couch, Skye took a quick shower herself, and dressed in a tank and yoga pants before she grabbed her personal laptop, a plate of lemongrass chicken with special fried rice, and settled into one of the big squashy armchairs she and Grant both loved.

Skye estimated that Grant had managed just over an hour’s true sleep when he stretched and yawned, eventually rolling into a sitting position.

“Hey,” he greeted her drowsily. “Wow, I feel so relaxed – how long was I out?”

“Hey yourself,” Skye greeted him happily. “A couple of hours.”

“Well, I feel great. Did you eat yet?”

“Yeah, I was starving. Want to make some popcorn and tequila sunrises?”

“Definitely – hey, I managed to hire a copy of ‘Zardoz’ the other day. Snarkfest?”

“Hell yeah! I’ll make the drinks, you do the corn.”

_Grant’s psychologist and alter both agreed that Skye was the key to one day merging Grant and Ward, but they could do nothing until Grant became aware of Ward, and that had to happen naturally._

Drinks made and popcorn in a shared bowl, Skye and Grant settled onto the couch together.

About the same time the floating head with a mustache of evil – drawn on in marker, seriously! – started bobbing around the screen, Skye felt a warm pressure on her leg.

Grant rested his hand on her knee, idly rubbing his thumb across her skin.

Skye slid her gaze sideways, to discreetly watch Grant’s face. After so many years, she knew Grant – and Ward - inside out, in word and deed. The expression on the face of the man beside her was all Grant, but Grant didn’t touch her like this; he didn’t caress her. **Ward** did.

Grant looked at her and gave her a sunny smile... and Skye could see a shadow of Ward behind his gaze.

Skye gave him – both of them – her best smile in return.

The time of Grant and Ward’s merging was coming... and she couldn’t wait to welcome **all** the man she loved into her arms.

 

**Author's Note:**

> _NOTE: Dissociative Personality Disorder (formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder) is actually incredibly rare in real life. However, one of the few things everyone can agree upon is that it is always caused by some kind of childhood trauma (which Grant Ward has in spades). Dissociative amnesia (lost time) is one of the lesser disorders that can also be symptoms of DPD._
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> _Zardoz is a so-bad-it’s-glorious sci-fi movie that Sean Connery made in the 70’s, post-Bond. Wearing a red leather nappy, thigh-high dominatrix boots, and a waist-length plait. The bit described herein is the opening scene, and it just gets better from there. If you want to play a drinking game, take a sip every time every time you see bare boobies (trust me, all the women in this movie have ‘boobies’, not breasts). Make sure it’s a sip, though, or you’ll end up unconscious by the halfway mark._


End file.
